Friday Focus - Cat and Dog Theology

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about something I learned at the Perth Women's Convention back in August.  Judging from some conversations I've had with other women who attended the convention, this has been one of the things from the day which has stuck with us the most.  It's actually quite hilarious because I doubt it was one of the speaker's most pertinent points.

The speaker spoke about 'cat and dog theology' and used the illustration of how cats and dogs relate to their master.  There are heaps of sites on this topic if you Google it.  Dogs get a pat from their masters and think, My master is very kind to me.  My master must be very important.  Cats get a pat from their masters and think, My master is very kind to me.  I must be very important.  Everyone laughed when she said this because we all know how true it is of cats!  But it's also true of us.

I have a dog and a cat, and I see these behaviours in them.  Sometimes I sit outside on the front step, trying to have a quiet time, and the animals immediately descend on me.  Maya the dog often comes and 'bows', lying flat on her belly with her beautiful brown eyes looking at me in awe as if to say, "Mistress!"  While I'm trying to read, she's busy licking me, pawing me, and whimpering.  When I call her to come to me, she almost always obeys, and obeys with almost feverish excitement.  Her life aim seems to be to please Duncan and I.

Ebony the cat, on the other hand, is a downright madam!  She is the typical cat - whiny, demanding, and thinking our life purpose is to serve her.  And if she doesn't get what she wants when she wants it, she sulks.  While Maya thinks Duncan and I are gods, Ebony thinks SHE is God.

I was listening to an online sermon last week during which the speaker challenged us in our relationship with God - are we faithful dogs or self-centred cats?  To my shame, I admit I'm often much more like a cat - aloof, unfaithful, and selfish.  I often fall into the trap of thinking that God is a kind of genie who exists to serve me.  Now I want to be like Maya whose whole world is about her master.  I want my life to be about bringing glory to God, and not myself. 

I want to come a deeper understanding and realisation of just how holy, majestic, awesome and mighty is our God.  I have a long way to go, but I'm thankful God has started a good work in me, and will bring it to completion.

To join in Friday Focus and share what God has been teaching you lately, click here.

The Ones Who Almost Put Me Off Having Kids

Gosh, women can be really discouraging to other women at times!

There is a fine line between honesty and negativity.

Have a read of this article and let me know what you think.  If you're a mum, is this predominantly your experience?

Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen

These lyrics do a pretty good of conveying how I feel sometimes which I attempted to describe in my last post.

I get up in the morning, and I ain't got nothing to say.
I come home in the evening, I go to bed feeling the same way.
I ain't nothing but tired, man I'm just tired and bored with myself.
Hey there, baby, I could use just a little help.

You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark.
This gun's for hire even if we're just dancing in the dark.

Message keeps getting clearer, radio's on, and I'm moving round the place.
I check myself out in the mirror, I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.
Man I ain't getting nowhere just sitting in a dump like this.
There's something happening somewhere, baby, I just know that there is.

Sarah Wants Her Groove Back!

Years and years ago, I saw a preview for a movie called How Stella Got Her Groove Back. I still haven’t seen the movie, but it looked a story about a middle-aged woman who gets her ‘groove’ back by holidaying on a tropical island, and meeting a good-looking man.

Right now, I’m trying to put how I feel into words, but I have a strong suspicion that nobody’s really going to ‘get it’. In short, I feel like Stella did.  I’ve lost my groove.  Basically, since I’ve been married, I feel like I’ve undergone a huge life shift. I look back on my life in Perth, and I realise that not only has my lifestyle changed, I have changed! I’m not the same person I was a few years ago.

I don’t think going from city mouse to country mouse has been a bad thing…far from it. A few weeks ago in Perth, I was having lunch with a good friend, and she commented that she could never have pictured me living on a farm a few years ago. I asked her to explain what she meant because I’ve heard that comment from a number of city friends, and usually they’re referring to the fact they thought I was a city slicker who could never survive in the ‘outback’. What my friend meant was that a few years ago, we were both working full-time, rushing around to a million events on weeknights and weekends, barely having time to scratch ourselves. She is still living that lifestyle, and was amazed about how I could go from doing so much to doing much less. She obviously thought I thrived on being super busy.

I explained to her that moving to the country was a necessary change for me. When I left, I felt close to burn-out. I NEVER enjoyed being run off my feet; honestly I felt like a mouse running on a wheel, trapped and going nowhere. I’m glad to be doing less (I think there is a common misconception among some of my city friends that I do nothing all day). Often I read on Facebook about parties friends are organising , and I feel really left out. That’s when I start wishing I could go back, but I know, in reality, it would be an unwise move, and nothing would change from last time.

I was saying to Duncan the other week that I really struggle with social events now. This has been one of the downsides about living in the middle of nowhere. I feel like I’ve lost my confidence to talk small-talk and hold a decent conversation. I’ve gone from being surrounded by people to spending so much time on my own that I struggle with motivation when we do go out somewhere. Whereas once I went to event after event with little thought, now I really have to psych myself up. I feel like I’m boring and have nothing to offer anyone.

This feeling is a far cry from the days where I would stay out late, occasionally til 3 or 4am with friends. Nowadays I struggle to get to midnight on New Year’s Eve. A number of friends have said they feel the same – they have much less energy in their late twenties than when they were eighteen. But I feel like it’s more than that with me. Whereas once all I wanted to do was dance madly and be really loud and entertaining, now I’m content to sit on the couch with a DVD and the doona pulled up to my chin. Everything takes so much effort, and I just don’t have the energy.

I’m not depressed, I don’t sit around and cry – I’m just worried I’m turning into a nana before my time. It doesn’t help sometimes when Duncan is quite content to be in ‘grandpa mode’, sitting on the couch in his Mr Grumpy pjs, watching ABC shows on the laptop. It scares me when I look at my nana who is housebound and has no choice. I don’t want to be like that now when I’m young and have the freedom to be out and about. I’m worried I’ll spend my youth being a nana, and then when I actually get old and wrinkly, I’ll realise I have wasted my life.

I know this sounds bad, but I also feel like I’ve outgrown some people since I left Perth. People I once found amusing, I now find somewhat irritating and immature. Recently someone from Perth brought up something crazy I did six years ago – I was pretending to be a guinea pig drinking out one of those upside down water bottles they have in their cages (I know, crazy!) – and he was reminiscing about how funny it was. To be honest, I felt kind of annoyed. I couldn’t imagine doing that now. I feel like I’ve gone from being an energetic puppy to a placid old dog. I don’t know if this is due to being married, or from living in the country, or a combination of both. I don’t WANT to feel like I have an air of superiority over people; part of me does want to go back to being the crazy nut. I really hate it when friends move into another stage of life, and SOME change personalities, getting a kind of snobbery about them, that none of their existing friends could POSSIBLY understand them now they’ve got married, had a baby etc. I would hate people to think that I feel I’m too good for them, but I have a hard time dealing with some people’s immaturity.

Right now I feel like I’m locked in a battle. I haven’t completely lost my desire to get up and dance. I did this recently at a friend’s wedding, and it felt SO GOOD to get it out of my system for a bit. It’s just now I really have to fight, to make an effort, to battle weariness and a lack of motivation that tells me it would be better to spend my life on the couch.

I want my groove back! If anyone has it, please return it, and I will offer a reward, no questions asked.

To reminisce, here are some crazy photos I found.

New Year's Eve 2006/07 with my friend, Kate.

December 2006

December 2006

Dancing in the snow in Tasmania, July 2008

Gargling the national anthem. March 2005.

August 2005

2005 sometime.

I call this one, 'The Many Faces of Me'.  June 2004.

Friday Funny

I want one of these! :)

DOORMATS WITH A DIFFERENCE

The Journey North

After our church camp in Jurien, we headed north on our holiday to Exmouth and Tom Price.  I love the feeling when you are about to depart on a holiday - nothing to worry about, freedom for the next couple of weeks. Ahhhh!

We stayed for one night in Greenough at the B&B which my uncle used to own.  He sold it a couple of years ago, and ironically it was bought by his former partner from 20 odd years ago.  They have done an amazing job with it, and I highly recommend you stay there if you ever get the chance.  The cottage was built by convicts, and when you walk in there, it feels like you are stepping back in time.

Next, we headed to Carnarvon and stayed for one night in a caravan park.  I've been to Carnarvon before, but it was 14 years ago, and we didn't stop there.  The place is Bananarama - what else can I say?

This banana used to be vertical.  Hmmmm

Bananas, bananas everywhere!

Calling All Theoblogians #9

I suspect the answer to this question may well be, "It doesn't matter," but I'm going to ask it anyway.

When a Christian dies, do they go to be with Jesus straight away, or does every Christian (dead or alive) have to wait until Jesus returns?

A few years ago, I was having a conversation with some friends and their housemates about this issue.  All of these people are Seventh Day Adventists, and Adventists believe in the doctrine of 'soul sleep' (see their Official Belief No. 26 from the Seventh Day Adventist homepage). They believe that when a Christian dies, they remain in an unconscious state until the second coming of Christ.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 is one passage in Scripture where they get this belief from, but there are others.

This belief differs greatly with the opinion of many other denominations which believe a Christian goes to be with Christ the second they die.  I've heard many people say, "They've gone to be with Jesus," after losing a loved one, and they get this from Luke's account of Jesus' conversation with the repentant thief at the crucifixion:
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:42-43)

My Seventh Day Adventist friends believe that since the original text contained no commas, where you place the comma in the English translation completely changes the meaning of the verse.

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (This sounds like the thief will be in paradise with Jesus TODAY).

"I tell you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise." (This sounds like Jesus is telling the truth TODAY, but that does not mean the thief will be in paradise today).

A number of Christians believe that they will go to be with Jesus as soon as they die, and will be looking down on their loved ones from heaven.  For one lady I know of, this enslaved her because she believed her late husband was watching her so she felt pressure to dress in a way that would please him.  My SDA friends don't believe this because they argue they wouldn't be in much of a paradise if they could see their loved ones suffering on earth.  I'm inclined to agree with them there!

One pastor I know said he thinks it is both.  That when Christians die, they go to be with Jesus, but also a lot depends on the coming of the new creation.  He said it sounds ludicrous to think it could be both, but he thinks Scripture presents it as both.

I also suspect this question is unanswerable simply because you'd have to die and come back to tell people what it was like.  But I thought I'd throw it out there anyway to see if anyone can shed some insight on the Scriptures I mentioned.